As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. Information handling systems represent one option available to users. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information.
Because information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. Variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. Information handling systems may also include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
IoT devices are an emerging class of information handling resources, encompassing dynamically configurable objects with embedded technologies capable of communicating over public and private networks, and capable of bidirectional interactions with the environment individually or as organized systems. See, e.g., Dell, Inc., Massively Connected—The Evolving Internet of Things and Pervasive Computing Ecosystems, pp. 2-3, (Dell Software, 2014) (hereinafter “Massively Connected”), which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
An array of technological and social advances are contributing to IoT growth. The launch of IPv6 in June of 2012 enabled billions of new devices to connect to the Internet, each with their own individual address designation. Mobile access and high-speed wireless connectivity have become ubiquitous, extending to ever-more remote locations. Smaller, cheaper, and better performing sensors and smart controllers can efficiently acquire data from the physical environment to help optimize operations and increase productivity. In addition, people are becoming increasingly comfortable using technology both at home and at work or school and the cost of deploying sophisticated personal technologies is falling steeply even as improvements to attributes such as battery life and functionality accelerate. Finally, high performance and cloud computing combined with powerful new tools for data analysis and software-defined infrastructure reap the benefits of and provide justification for networks comprising millions or billions of devices capturing unprecedented volumes of data.
Despite their potential as the cornerstone of a revolutionizing technological and informational paradigm, IoT devices have been leveraged in malicious efforts including multiple significant distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks. The use of default access credentials is one characteristic of many common first-generation IoT devices including home routers and online cameras that has contributed to the success and extent of IoT-based DDOS attacks.